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Ronda Hill and her long last cat Onyx, whom she reunited with at Klassic Kennels on Oct. 29. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)
a happy halloween indeed

Onyx the lucky black cat returned to owner 13 months after disappearance

Oct 29, 2022 | 12:41 PM

A very unlucky black cat was reunited with its owner on Saturday at Red Deer’s Klassic Kennels.

Onyx, who is about three, was last seen by his owner, Ronda Hill, in September 2021 at her home in Sylvan Lake.

Onyx, having gone through who knows how many lives since then to defeat Old Man Winter and any number of fearsome creatures such as coyotes, was recently trapped in the Eckville area, about 25 km away.

He was then brought to Klassic Kennels, which works in conjunction with Paws & Claws Animal Rescue Foundation. Thankfully, Onyx was chipped, and Hill was able to be contacted, leading to a tearful reunion.

The moment Ronda Hill was reunited with Onyx after 13 months. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“I was in my lunch room at work and saw animal control was calling, but I knew all my other animals were at home,” says Hill. “I was speechless when they told me; ecstatic, but in shock.”

Hill says her story is a great reminder about properly identifying your pets, but she also hopes it takes a bit of the stigma off of supposedly unlucky black cats.

“Onyx was somewhat feral before. I’d had him since he was a kitten and was attempting to get him to be a housecat. I was within inches of that when he disappeared. I’d see him several times throughout the day and it was very unusual that he just disappeared. I reached out to every shelter, canvassed social media, and put posters up. I continued to look until after Christmas, but I knew the odds were very poor,” she says.

“Black cats are the least adoptable because of the superstition, and people can be mean to them. The importance of proper identification of your animals can’t be understated. He was neutered, microchipped, tattooed, and that’s all fairly inexpensive and painless. I hoped that if he’d passed, it wasn’t tragic.”

Despite the alleged connection between cats, and primarily witches, Hill has had no such terrifying tales of bad luck to tell related to her ownership of Onyx.

“Him being black is actually why I wanted to keep him. I’ve had absolutely no bad luck with black cats over 20+ years. They’re beautiful and look like little baby panthers,” she quips. “It’s a total myth. The luck here is good in that he found his way back home. I’m very fortunate actually that I have a place to hopefully rehabilitate him.”

Onyx before his disappearance in Sept. 2021. (Supplied)

Jim DeBoon, owner and operator of Klassic Kennels, says pet owners being responsible about proper identification has an even larger impact in that it can keep shelters from becoming so overrun with animals.

Paws & Claws is currently at over 200 per cent capacity with how many cats it has, and most shelters are in similar situations.

“As a small agency, we took in 64 animals in the month of October so far, and we’re not adopting them out at that rate,” says DeBoon. “The bottom line is that there’s a huge cat overpopulation problem here and all across North America. In 40 years of doing this, I’ve never seen it so bad.”

One pitfall often encountered with microchips or tattoos is that often, owners of pets who’ve run away change addresses. He says this is why it’s critical that when you do move, you update your contact information with the chip manufacturer.

“In this case, being a semi-feral cat that someone actually cares about and gets to go home, let’s just say I always do a little happy dance when this happens.”

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